John Wayne illustrates Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's "La propriété, c'est le vol!"

It's amazing, but the clearest video representation I've ever seen of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's famous slogan, "Property is theft!" (first formulated in French as "La propriété, c'est le vol!") is found in Howard Hawks' classic western, Red River. I had posted this movie back in 2011 with the same message, but that earlier clip had been removed from YouTube. Here's the key section of the film again, courtesy of Fandango MovieClips.

The movie ends with John Wayne a respected large-scale landowner, rancher, and all-around successful capitalist asshole. Here he is very early in the film, beginning his Texas real-estate and cattle empire with a murder and the brazen theft of Mexican land that formed his original ranch on the north side of the Rio Grande. I don't think any further explanation is needed to connect the dots to Proudhon's thesis.

Happy Birthday to Philip Seymour Hoffman

Brandt left us much too soon.

Happy Birthday to Cleavon Little (1939-1992)

"It was the old old story of the sacrificial lamb."

Channel 13 in New York broadcast Judgment at Nuremberg on Saturday night. The following scene with Burt Lancaster as German judge Ernst Janning stuck out to me as having some contemporary significance, so I'll simply share it without further commentary.

The Big Lebowski explains in 30 seconds why you can't argue with Steve Bannon.

"Nihilists? Fuck me."

A Surprise for the Next Sean Spicer Press Briefing?

In his first two appearances, Donald Trump's press secretary Sean Spicer has shown himself to be an aficionado  of "alternative facts" and a master practitioner of the Fine White Whine of blaming the press, but the press shouldn't get too comfortable with the routine verbal back and forth.

They should remember that Richard Nixon built the Press Briefing Room over FDR's indoor pool and Sean might be saving his trump card for just the right moment.

Gene Wilder, June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016

From Start the Revolution Without Me (1970):

A Video Preview of the First Clinton-Trump Debate...

...starring Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis:



Donald Trump may be the only person on the planet who has even more trouble saying the words "apologize" and "I'm sorry" than Stupid Otto.

My Bold Day-After-The-Oscars Prediction

Within ten years, when people look back at the celebrity worship and backslapping convention held at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre last night, they'll ask, "Did they really overlook Inherent Vice?"

As a diehard Thomas Pynchon fan I had been waiting for Paul Thomas Anderson's film adaptation for months before and after its release. However, the vagaries of feature film distribution haven't brought it to a theatre within a hundred miles of my home yet. But on Oscar weekend I was able to pay to watch Inherent Vice on demand and did so twice. I've never seen a film that benefited so much from rewatching (just as Pynchon's books are all better and richer on second and third readings), and my prediction is that it will quickly become a classic as more people are able to see and share it.

Check back with me on this prediction in 2025 so that one of us can say, "I told you so."

Lars Andersen may have just made it necessary to redo every historical or fantasy movie involving bows and arrows...

As an archer myself (on a level nothing like this), I have never even imagined something like this was possible:



And this video of one archer from Denmark has the fringe benefit of making anyone who uses a gun (with whatever level of cold-blooded expertise) look like a coward and untalented tool.

Kurt Andersen talking to Paul Thomas Anderson about Thomas Pynchon and Inherent Vice

If you have a spare 40 minutes, or if you want to listen to something interesting while watching football with no sound, you can do worse than listening to this extended interview that was condensed to 13 minutes on Studio 360:

I don't think that plant is going to survive.

If you liked Bill Murray singing Roxy Music at a Tokyo karaoke bar in Lost In Translation, you will love this video of him singing 'Shelter from the Storm' along with Bob Dylan in this video pulled from the upcoming St. Vincent:

This might actually be good.

I hate to get my hopes up, but is it possible that Paul Thomas Anderson may actually succeed in bringing a Thomas Pynchon novel to the screen?
Here's the trailer released today:



And here's an interesting discussion on WNYC's Soundcheck in which John Schaefer and Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield talk about the music in the novel:

Today's Fine White Whine Comes from a Fracking Flack (and his right-wing media megaphone)

So, what does the right-wing media have to complain about today (other than the fact that Michelle Obama mentioned Jane Fonda)? It seems that a film festival being held this week at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota will not be showing the amateurish pro-fracking film FrackNation, so they are predictably being accused of liberal censorship of anti-environmental films by filmmaker Phelim McAleer.

"The film festival organizers seem to hate alternative points of view, they seem to want to quash diversity. They seem to be scared of the truth. Basically the Frozen River Film Festival organizers have given in to bullying and taken the easy way out and censored a film that might offend environmental elites who think they know best. These people are cultural censors and don't want the truth about fracking to be shown to audiences."

If that sounds familiar, he also accused the IMF of censoring him last year by not showing his film. "Basically [yes, he overuses 'basically'] they were censoring my presentation, they were censoring my speech," But this time a group other than 'environmental elites' got the blame. "They're trying to force people not to say terrible things because it could offend one of their senior members. They didn't want to offend Russia."

So, what do the the organizers of this week's Minnesota film festival have to say about giving in to bullying from liberal cultural censors? Here's the statement on the website of the Frozen River Film Festival:

"The Frozen River Film Festival regrets to inform its audience that we will not screen FRACKNATION. There is growing national consensus that the film does not qualify as a documentary and the filmmakers were unable to provide someone to stand-up for the film. Upon original acceptance we stated that a filmmaker attend with the film and join in a moderated public forum, as engagement is an important part of our mission. We offered to pay travel and lodging to anyone from the film who could attend. They declined to send someone, so we will not be screening the film."

Those monsters.

"... if a sperm is wasted, god gets quite irate ..."

Welcome to a preview of President Santorum's America where the only acceptable reason for sexual contact is procreation.

As I've said before, every Republican issue can be explained by a clip from a classic movie.

Look, it's the original cast of American Psycho!

Can't you just imagine these young go-getters going to expensive restaurants and getting expensive suits and custom business cards when they aren't busy with murders and executions?